


Bad News

by casdoms (moffwithhishead)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: It's not //really// dean smith??? it's KINDA dean smith???????, M/M, Tattoo Artist Castiel, Tattoos, and dean and charlie get matching tattoos aw yea, but tattoo artist!cas and supportive bff charlie, charlie and jo is background!!! SORRY!!!!!, it's like my own version of dean smith where he's more like dean winchester and less like canon??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 15:55:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moffwithhishead/pseuds/casdoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>3.8k of deancas tattoo au. </p><p>Cas' shop isn't exactly well-known, but it's pretty popular within the right circles. There are plenty of people in the seedier parts of town who wear their shop t-shirts with pride; a set of wings and “Hell in a Handbasket Tattoo Parlor” emblazoned across their backs.</p><p>The point was that most of his customers are people he knows, or who already know about him and his business.</p><p>So it's a surprise when a guy a little younger than him he doesn’t recognize stumbles into the shop looking exhausted and slightly disheveled in an expensive suit, a short redhead behind him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad News

**Author's Note:**

> I re-read (for like the 18th time) An Exercise in Worthless today and I got mad again about the lack of deancas tattoo au's and the even greater lack of au's where /Cas/ is the artist. SO I DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT -
> 
> It's **kinda** Dean Smith... and by kinda, I mean that he's my version of Dean Smith. He's Dean Winchester if Dean Winchester was _adopted_ by Bobby and Ellen, I guess? Anyway, yeah, if you're reading this like "WHAT THIS IS NOT DEAN SMITH, THIS IS BUILT ON A BED OF LIES!!1!!!" that's why. Don't say I didn't warn you.
> 
> Thank you to [Irma](http://whiskeywit.tumblr.com/), [Chloe](http://endversecas.tumblr.com/) and [Ari](http://castielnovak.tumbleh.com/) for reading this over!!
> 
> ** PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE GETTING A TATTOO. Do not do what Charlie and Dean are doing, which is walking into a shop without doing any research on it or the artist. Always make sure your artist is licensed by the proper people and has training. Any reputable shop will have their certifications properly displayed somewhere in the front of the shop and the artist will have their certifications in their own area. Do not be Dean and Charlie in this fic!! **

> 3.8k of tattoo artist!cas and (sorta) dean smith

Cas' shop isn't exactly well-known, but it's pretty popular within the right circles. There are plenty of people in the seedier parts of town who wear their shop t-shirts with pride; a set of wings and “Hell in a Handbasket Tattoo Parlor” emblazoned across their backs.

The point was that most of his customers are people he knows, or who already know about him and his business.

So it's a surprise when a guy a little younger than him he doesn’t recognize stumbles into the shop looking exhausted and slightly disheveled in an expensive suit, a short redhead behind him. 

She's talking to the guy in hushed tones and Cas smiles, bemused, because he's fairly certain neither one of them has realized that he's standing at the counter listening to them bicker like an old married couple. It's cute, if not a little surprising - he never would've pegged them as a couple.

The derisive snort the woman directs at him makes Castiel realize he’d said that  _out loud_  and he blushes a little as she laughs, almost crowing, "Me?! And Dean?! Oh my God, that’s a good one!" 

The man in question, Dean (apparently), is almost as red as Cas and he mumbles an apology to the blue-eyed man before grabbing Charlie's shoulder and gesturing towards the door, "Char, c'mon, this was stupid, let's just go." She shakes his hand off and goes up to the counter, “Dean, don’t be such a girl about it. He’s fine, see? Smiling and everything, I’ll bet he’s even had his rabies shots.”

She grins up at Cas once Dean looks slightly placated (and by placated she means giving her a bitchface to rival Sam’s), "We're here to get tattooed." 

Castiel can't help the small smirk as he replies, deadpan, "I'm sure I can help with that." 

Her grin grows and she points a decisive finger at Castiel, "I like you." Charlie turns back to Dean and smiles as she grabs his hand, "C'mon Freckles, don't be such a little bitch. I'll hold your hand through it and everything." When she looks back up at Cas she whispers conspiratorially, " _He's nervous_." 

Dean flips off the back of her head and pouts. "I am not  _nervous_ ," he mumbles somewhat petulantly. "I just have a healthy amount of skepticism about how good an idea this actually is." 

“You thought this was a great idea last night,” Charlie reminds him, momentarily ignoring Cas. Dean’s pout deepens as he crosses his arms over his chest, “Yeah and last night we were helping Andy get over his break up, I don’t even remember what we ate. I don’t even remember what I had for  _breakfast_  this morning, Charlie.” 

They bicker for a few more minutes before Castiel clears his throat, smiling kindly at them, "While I hate to interrupt you, I believe you had an end goal in coming here and interrupting my lunch? Something about a tattoo…? ”

At that, Charlie at least has the decency to look sheepish, smiling apologetically at him, "Our bad. But this really shouldn't take all that long." Dean steps forward again and grabs her elbow, trying to pull her back towards the door, "It's fine, man. See, Char, we interrupted this poor dude's lunch break. Let's just go and forget about it..." 

Charlie gives Dean something that might be a death-glare and shakes her head decisively. "Nuh-uh, we're here, we're doing it. You're gonna be twenty seven years old, Dean, you have to do  _something_  crazy!"

She pulls out a piece of paper from her pocket and slides it over to Cas, "We both want one of these bad boys. I want mine on my arm, probably my forearm, and Dean wants it on his ass." Dean actually, honest-to-god  _squeaks_  out a scandalized, "Charlie!" 

Castiel can't help the small grin on his face when he sees what's on the paper - it's the Starfleet insignia. Charlie's is a combination of the blue and red ones with “N.U.” written sloppily in the corner of it. Dean's is gold, classic and unchanged from the original series with “J.T.K”. in the same corner. His handwriting is neater, more deliberate, Cas notes, like he's thought about everything in the sketch for a long time. It makes something in his chest ache with fondness for the man already. 

"These should not take too long for me to draw up if you want to wait," he tells them without looking up from where he's grabbing his sketchbook. "Twenty minutes each, max. Is this the size you want?"

Charlie beams at him and nods, bouncing a little on her heels, "Yup! They're both exactly how we want them." Dean mumbles something about it being a good size and shuffles over to the other side of the room to look at the pages of Cas' portfolio that are hung up all over the walls. Anna's pages are up there too, but Dean only seems to be looking at his. 

The two customers decide to wait on the couch in the front of the shop while Cas draws up the outlines in his office. There's some sort of classical music playing in the background, but after a while it switches to some shitty pop station and Castiel makes a note to never let Samandriel pick the Pandora station again. 

After some idle chatter, Charlie elbows Dean gently and grins as she wiggles her eyebrows, "So...?" 

He rolls his eyes and mumbles. "What? Spit it out." She just snorts and shoves him playfully, "Dude, the tattoo artist?  _Super_  dreamy." 

"And here I was thinkin' you only went for the chicks," Dean clutches his chest dramatically and feigns offense. "You  _wound_  me, Bradbury. Keeping this side of you from me? I thought you trusted me." 

She snorts again as she unceremoniously kicks his shin, "Shut the fuck up. I'm gay, not blind. He's a regulation hottie and he's  _totally_  into you." 

Luckily, Cas saves Dean from acknowledging that with a response by poking his head out of his office and smiles at them as he holds out the sketches. "Are these acceptable?" 

They each take their respective drawings and Cas actually blushes when he sees the look on Dean's face - he looks like he's not really sure if this is real. He blushes even more when the other man looks up at him almost like he's in awe and nods dumbly, "Yeah... these... these are amazing, man. I had no idea they could look so...  _cool_." 

Cas had taken some liberties with the outlines and embellished them a little more - while they were small and most probably not super sentimental tattoos, Cas has never been in the business of just tracing someone else's work and tattooing it onto people. He likes to, if permitted, give everything a little bit of a flair. 

They decide that Dean will go first since he's still nervous ("I'm not nervous!" he keeps insisting as he stares at the gun like it's going to come to life and attack him) and Castiel leaves him alone to get ready. 

"Okay," Dean's awkward voice comes from the other side of the door after a couple minutes. "You, uh... you can come in now, Cas-tea-ell,” he says awkwardly, his tongue tripping over the word.

Cas gestures around the room to his diploma’s and certifications as he walks into the room, mumbling, "I'm glad to know that you can read," completely straight-faced as he walks to the counter and starts getting everything ready. Dean turns his head a little where he's laying on the table and quirks an eyebrow at him, obviously trying not to laugh, "You're kind of an asshole, you know that?"

It startles a laugh out of Cas, and he grins at Dean once he has his gloves on, "I have been accused of that before, yes." 

Charlie had stepped out ten minutes ago to take a phone call from her girlfriend who, Castiel surmises, is Dean's little sister, so they’re alone when Cas announces he has everything in order.

"Dean," Castiel says as soothingly as possible as he cleans the sensitive skin he’d just shaved, trying not to comment on the fact that Dean's ass had already been shaven (and rather cleanly too, he might add). "Would you like to wait for Charlie to return before I start?" 

Dean's quiet for a moment before saying nervously, "You, uh... you can start. Just... just give me a warning, will you?" 

"Alright," he nods and gets into a comfortable position before smiling at Dean in the mirror as he rubs some vaseline over the stencil, "I'm going to start on the count of three. One..." Cas gets the gun into position, "Two..." He turns it on and smiles reassuringly at the other man’s reflection in the mirror, "Three." 

There's a small, surprised sound from Dean when he starts working but other than that he doesn't really say anything and honestly, Castiel doesn't mind. It's so much easier to focus on the outlines of the insignia and how he wants them to flow with the lines and slopes of Dean's ass without incessant chatter. He prefers to work in silence and this - this is comfortable.

...That is, it's comfortable until he starts in on the shading and Dean sucks in a pained breath, unable to stop himself.

"I apologize," Cas murmurs as his eyes flick up to meet the other man's for a moment, "I know how uncomfortable this can be." Dean smiles and laughs weakly, trying not to move his body too much, "Really? I noticed for a guy who owns his own tattoo shop, you don't really got that many tattoos." 

Castiel smiles as he goes back to working when he answers, "I have thirty tattoos, Dean. There is no reason for me to share them with the rest of the world, however." 

"Oh," Dean's mouth forms a small 'o' and he gives a small, jerky nod before licking his lips and asking hesitantly, "What... what are they? I mean -" he seems to realize what Castiel had just said and tries to backtrack, "Sorry, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I'm just being a nosey jackass." 

His mouth quirks up in a small smile as he murmurs, "It's fine, Dean... most people do ask." When he moves over to switch ink, he wiggles his shoulder some until the sweatshirt he has on falls down enough to reveal the top of one tattoo, "I have a set of wings that cover almost all of my upper back and my arms." Cas pushes his chair back over to the table and starts working again, murmuring apologies when Dean grunts as he re-shades one spot that looks a little too light for his taste. 

"I have many small tattoos that I got in my misspent youth," he continues talking as he works, noticing that it seems to relax (or at least distract) Dean. "I have my mother's name in Enochian on my ribs, a set of rosaries on the top of my left foot, a Shakespeare quote, a mandala, a portrait of the Goddess Kali and a few others..." 

Dean watches him in the mirror and smiles kindly at him and it makes Cas' breath catch in his throat - he looks so much  _younger_  now with his cheeks all pink and his hair slightly ruffled. His smile just lights up his whole face and Castiel thinks, for one fleetingly insane moment, that he would kill to see that smile every day.

And then the other man breaks the spell and asks the inevitable question, "What'd you get the wings for?" 

"Ah..." His smile turns a little sad as he finishes coloring in the details and starts working on coloring the whole thing, "My family was... religious and restrictive. And I, like any teenager, was rebellious. I suppose it was my biggest way of giving my parents the middle finger." 

Which is both true and not - he'd been kicked out of his home, disowned by his father and ignored by his siblings years ago. The angel wings had been a drunken idea to represent his fall from "Grace" as the good child. Waking up to a half formed wing outline on his right arm had been a shock but Anna did a spectacular job on the outline so he decided to go with it. His relationship with them is complicated - while Castiel thinks they're absolutely gorgeous pieces of art, he sometimes wishes he didn't have to carry the burden of their meaning with him everyday. He wishes he didn't have to think about his family all the time.

Dean seems to sense that it's not the whole story and nods, "I know the feelin'. Wanting to stick it to your parents... mine are... well," he smiles and it's the first real genuine smile Cas has seen on the man, "They're amazing. But they're also good ol' southern folk who own a biker bar and a mechanic shop in the middle of fuck-all nowhere South Dakota." 

Castiel laughs and has to move his hand away so he won't mess up the tattoo, "So your middle finger to your parents was this awful suit?" 

"Hey, I resent that," Dean pouts up at him in the mirror but he's fighting a grin, "This suit is Armani, asshole. It's a fucking piece of  _art_." Castiel grins and goes back to working after a moment, "I was not aware that Armani had a 'wrinkled haute couture' collection, my apologies." 

"Oh," the other man's cheeks turn a little pink and he laughs, "Right. Sorry, uh, long day at work... really, really long day." 

Charlie sticks her head in the room and smiles apologetically at Dean in the mirror, "You're gonna hate me..." He groans and lets his forehead fall forward to rest on the table, "You're leaving, aren't you?" She bites her lip and nods before shrugging innocently, "...Whoops...?" 

Dean flips her off and then goes back to laying completely still for Cas, who promises Charlie that she can call and reschedule for another day with a small smile as he continues working on Dean. 

They finish up a little less than forty-five minutes later and Dean waits to stand up until Cas turns around to take his gloves off. When he turns around, the other man is standing front of the mirror and admiring his new addition with a small, private smile on his face.

His shirt is rucked up to his middle and he's holding his pants awkwardly so they're covering his front but not his back. It makes the tips of Cas' ears flush and he clears his throat, suddenly feeling like he's intruding on a private moment, "Ah... is it alright?" 

Dean seems to remember he's there at that and blushes before laughing a little giddily, "It's... dude, it's way better than I thought it could ever be. You took a really geeky tattoo and you made it... shit, Cas, you made it  _beautiful_." 

This time it's Cas' turn to blush and he ducks his head a little as he grins at the floor, "That... thank you, Dean. That means a lot." He holds his phone up after a moment awkwardly and shuffles his feet, "Would, you, uhm... would you mind if I took a picture of it? For my, uh... for my portfolio and everything?" Castiel mentally cursed himself for being so nervous about asking Dean for this - he's asked dozens of clients before if they minded and he was never this  _weird_  about it. 

The other man eyes Cas suspiciously for a moment, like he's not sure if he believes him, before swallowing and nodding, "Yeah... yeah, Cas, 'course you can. Just... do me a favor and don't put my name on it?" He grins a little at Cas, "Don't really want to explain this to my boss." 

It surprises another laugh out of Cas and he nods as he walks over to Dean, "Yes, of course. We wouldn't want that..." He stops about a foot from the other man and they stare at each other for a solid minute without saying anything before Dean laughs nervously and coughs, "So... how do you want me?"

The question sends a litany of inappropriate thoughts through Cas' head and he immediately blushes as he tries to look somewhat unflustered, "Ah... however you feel most comfortable would be good. Perhaps laying down on the table?"

In the end they just decide that Dean standing will be the least awkward position to take it in and Cas immediately regrets agreeing to this as soon as he's two inches away from that perfect ass.

He takes the picture quickly and unceremoniously, not even bothering to check if it turned out alright before standing up and clearing his throat, "That's... yes, that's good, thank you Dean." When he turns around, Dean's about an inch from his face and both of their breaths catch at the same time before Dean surges forward and kisses Cas.

It's messy and hurried and rough, all tongues and teeth, and  _fuck_  if it isn't perfect. Cas lets himself get backed up against his desk as he kisses the other man back and fists his hair, earning him a small moan. 

They don't break apart until Cas' hand finds itself on Dean's ass and he accidentally grazes the top of the tattoo, making the taller man gasp a sharp and surprised, "Oh" into their kiss. Cas backs off immediately and closes his eyes so he can maybe,  _maybe_  get his wits back about him before laughing breathlessly, "That... that was..." 

"Yeah," Dean laughs lightly in agreement and his forehead comes to rest down on Cas' collarbone as the artist's hand finds its way to the back of his neck.

They stay like that for a few minutes, just breathing and catching their breath before Dean's phone buzzes and they have to step apart.

And Lord help Castiel but when Dean honest-to-god  _pouts_  at the offending object, it makes his stomach do backflips and his heart fill with some warm, overly affectionate feeling that he doesn't care to name. Not right now. 

"Sorry," he mumbles apologetically as he answers the phone, "Hello?"

Castiel slips away from Dean and gets the stuff out of his desk to cover the tattoo as well as the aftercare instructions and goody bag. With a small smile from Dean, he started covering the tattoo in the bandages and when he was done he felt bold, pressing a light kiss to the top of Dean's ass. 

It was worth the small gasp that Dean had to cover up with a cough as he talks to the person on the other end of the line (a business call, Cas surmised). 

He pulled his clothes on once the new tattoo was covered safely and mouthed 'thank you' when Cas handed him the goody bag before leading them back out to the front. Dean hands over his credit card to pay as he says into the phone, "Well Zachariah, I'm really sorry that the tech department won't help you with that but we told you when we signed the contract, our business doesn't do that kind of stuff..." 

Cas tries not to look too disappointed that Dean apparently has to go now but as he's ringing him up, he catches the other man scribbling something down on a business card from his wallet.

He smiles as he passes the credit card back over to Dean and grins widely when he reads the business card - 

  
Dean W. Smith  
VP of Hunter Industries   


\- with Dean's somewhat messy scrawl on the back of it, his phone number and email under a message, ' _Call me, Cas. Dinner? Drinks? :) Sorry about running out on you. D_ '

Castiel looks up to say goodbye but Dean's already out the door and going into the parking lot. He can't help but grin as he watches the other man gingerly sit down in the front seat of an older black muscle car, something completely different than what he thought a man like Dean would drive. 

He looks down at the card in his hand and grins a little before entering Dean's information into his cell phone and going back to eating his now cold lunch.

Totally worth it.

* * *

Later that night, Dean's laying on his bed completely naked and groaning slightly at what a disaster that dinner meeting had been.

His phone buzzing on the nightstand snapped him out of it and he started laughing when he read the text messages from an unknown number that just made up for being yelled at by Rufus for an hour. 

> From: [unknown]  
>  _Dean, I apologize if this is too forward but it's rude to kiss and run._
> 
> From: [unknown]  
>  _I'm sorry, that sounded way better in my head._

Dean laughs and shakes his head fondly as he presses the callback button and the tension eases out of his shoulders when he hears the low voice on the other end.

"Hello Dean," Cas says and he sounds tired but Dean can practically hear the smile in his voice. "Hey, Cas," he grins as he rolls onto his side and pushes down the nervousness in his chest, "How was your day?" 

"Better now," Cas muses quietly and it makes something warm and affectionate bloom in Dean's chest. "Good..." He hides his face in a pillow even though no one can see him blushing and grinning like a thirteen year old girl talking to her crush for the first time, "I'm glad." 

Neither one of them says anything for a moment before they both blurt out at the same time, "Would you like to have-" They stop when they realize they're both talking and Cas says first, "You talk."

Dean laughs somewhat nervously and nods for no reason, "Would you-" Cas interrupts him with a quick, "Yes." 

He laughs again and shakes his head, "Hey, you gotta let me finish!"

The other man's grin is practically audible and he doesn't sound the least bit sorry when he replies, "I apologize, continue asking me out on a date." 

Dean snorts, "You're an asshole, you know that?" Cas hums in agreement, "I believe a customer told me that today." 

"Oh?" He grins and licks his lips, "Was it a hot customer?" 

" _Dean_ ," Cas lets out a long-suffering sigh, "I believe you had a question."

"Right right, sorry," Dean laughs to himself and nods even though the other man can't see it. "Alright... Castiel - I really love my tattoo and I think you're all kinds of hot and also, you're a really fucking great kisser and I was wondering if you'd like to go to dinner with me some time."

Castiel hums like he's thinking it over for a good minute before Dean whines petulantly, " _Cas_..." The other man laughs finally, "Of course I'll have dinner with you."

"Great!" Dean can't be bothered to hide the excitement in his voice, "Tomorrow night? Around seven?" 

"That seems to be acceptable, yes," Cas smiles on the other end, "Pick me up at the shop?" 

"It's a date." 


End file.
